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Saint Marie is a fictional island in the Lesser Antilles which serves as the setting for the BBC crime drama television series Death in Paradise.
Contents
Premise
Saint Marie is described in Episode 3.3 as a "pretty island" that is "situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea" and "one-tenth the size of its north-west neighbour Guadeloupe", which would make Saint Marie about 63 square miles (160 km2) in size.
The island is a British Overseas Territory, but was handed over to the British from the French only in the 1970s, such that about 30 percent of its people are French citizens, with the French language still widely spoken.
The back-story appears to be a blend of 2 real-world islands near to Guadeloupe, with size and location aligning with Marie-Galante (in real-life politically affiliated with Guadeloupe, not independent of it), and history and language aligning with Dominica. Another possible basis is Îlet Sainte Marie "The Îlet Sainte-Marie is an island located on the northeast coast of Martinique, right in front of the small town of Sainte-Marie, known in the North Atlantic region. Very popular with tourists, it is a geological curiosity of nature, as connected to the rest of the island by a tombolo."
They drive on the same side of the road as the UK.
Features
Saint Marie's population is assumed to be around 10,000.
In the series, Saint Marie has a volcano, rainforest, sugar plantations, a fishing harbour, an airport, a university, a convent, approximately 100 public beaches, and a Crown Court. It also has its own newspaper, The Saint Marie Times. Honoré, the main town, has a leisure/commercial marina, market, bars, and restaurants as well as the police station. The neighbouring town to Honoré is named as Port Royal. Its main economic ties are to Guadeloupe, the UK, and France, but it uses the East Caribbean Dollar as its unit of currency, as opposed to the Pound or the euro. The island's main religions are Catholicism and Voodoo, with several religious festivals featuring in the programme, including the Saint Ursula Festival (in reality, a major festival of the Virgin Islands) and some Voodoo festivals.
Locations
The series is filmed on Guadeloupe, and Deshaies doubles for the fictional town of Honoré.